Self Driving Car

[pbf98]

Google is at it again haha
Self-Driving Car Test: Steve Mahan - YouTube

The man behind the wheel has over 90% vision loss and is more than legally blind and this drive was 100% legal.

Can you imagine in the years to come when the majority of commuters have the device on their vehicles? It will help decrease car incidents drastically. It is something I think would be nice to see. It has lazrs and radars constantly scanning your surrounding area to ensure you stay on the road and you don't run into anything.


What are your thoughts on this?

 

[A.Nonymous]

This story and video is kind of old really. I think it's from 6 mos ago or so. I was discussing it at the time on another board and there was a guy there who was not happy with it at all. He didn't think the tech would be feasible in the long term. To be fair, he's a truck driver for a living so such technology has the ability to put him out of business.

 

[pbf98]

Yea I notice the video is from march but searching for self driving car didn't result in anything so I thought I would start it up, a colleague at work told me about it and I looked it up.

I like where google is going though.

 

[Speed Daemon]

The man behind the wheel has over 90% vision loss and is more than legally blind and this drive was 100% legal.

That's an unusual way of writing the normal "Closed road Do not attempt" disclaimer.

It would be nice to see more self-driving cars. Lord knows we need 'em as more and more people take their cars out and don't bother with the driving part.

I'd settle for something like a setting on the little knob for adjusting my car's mirrors that would allow me to steer the car of the bozo next to me who's drifting into my lane. Or to keep the SUV driver, who thinks that the only use for a turn signal is to give themselves license to cut off other cars, in their lane as I pass them. That would be really nice.

 

[dan330]

it is cool and great tech... to help society in general.

but.. from a different view...

what happens in the future.. and there are 100% of the cars are automated.. with little human interaction. what about auto insurance?? I would think the number of accidents will dramatically drop.. maybe below to .0001% chance.

but no tech can be perfect in all situations. so there will be the odd accident. maybe most will be minor. but it is possible to have a situation where someone get very hurt or even killed.

in the off chance that it happens only Once a year that someone get hurt...but since the cars are auto driven... who take responsibility?

 

[pbf98]

as long as there are cars on the road whether they be computer operated or human, there is always room for something to go wrong, so the insurance will always be there. Rates may be lower, but it will still be there.

And someone mentioned about a trucker worried about this affecting him in the future, it could.. but also look at locomotive transportation, trains use to take a lot of human interaction to keep running, but now they are mainly computer operated... but they still do require people on board to keep track of the equipment to ensure the load gets there safely.

One thing I got to thinking of about this car, what about winter driving? On icy road conditions? Not sure I would trust a computer vs my seasoned instinct, but then again they may have already tested in such conditions.

 

[Speed Daemon]

I can imagine that if we went to 100% automated car travel, that punk kids and hardened criminals alike would be spending lots of time and effort trying to find new ways to make the system fail and cause massive car crashes.

I watch Top Gear (UK) and have noticed that in some countries it's not uncommon to drive your car onto a train, and let the train take many cars between cities, under the English Channel, etc. In America we still have a lot of railroad rights-of-way that could be refurbished or put back into service as intermodal passenger transport for things like daily commutes, inter-city trips and so forth.

Self-driving technology could be used to automate the loading and unloading of cars to speed up the process and make it safer. It could also be used to assist drivers who have had too much to drink. Not a ride home, but enough to get the car off the train.

 

[runekey]

I am through-the-roof excited about self-driving cars! It's amazing to think that ill be able to see such a revolutionary breakthrough in technology early in my lifetime!

That being said, the current laws on self-driving cars require someone who has a valid license to be behind the wheel at all times just in case there is a need to go manual, so Im not sure how it was legal

 

[dibblebill]

Audi is supposed to have a car that can drive itself to a limited degree... I'll have an Audi, one day. My Jetta will have a big sibling.